Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
Southern Vermont
© 2003, © 2006 by Paul Freeman. Revised 1/15/06.
Miller Airport (revised 1/15/06)
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43.43 North / 72.4 West (Northwest of Boston, MA)
Miller Airport, as depicted on the 1957 USGS topo map.
“Located less than a mile from the base of Mt. Ascutney along the Connecticut river,
Miller airport was operated for 36 years by the Miller Construction company”, according to Jonathan Westerling.
According to Trumbull-Nelson’s Quarterly Construction Magazine,
the story of this airstrip revolves around O. W. Miller, known to everyone as “Chick”, who loved to fly.
In 1946, soon after finishing a project nearby,
Chick decided to stay in the Windsor area and establish his own construction company.
When he laid out the firm’s operating base between Route 5 & the Connecticut River about 3 miles south of Windsor,
he included his own landing strip.
However, no airfield at this location was yet depicted on the November 1956 Albany Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
The earliest depiction of Miller Airport which has been located
was on the 1957 USGS topo map.
It depicted a single north/south runway with a few small buildings on the west side,
labeled simply as “Airfield”.
“Chick flew everywhere, nearly every day.
If he had business in nearby Lebanon, he didn’t drive.
He would jump into his plane and fly up the river”,
recalled Roger Gilman, a civil engineer, who grew up in central Vermont
and had become Miller’s “right hand” after joining the company in 1964.
The July 1964 Albany Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
depicted Miller as a public-use airfield having a 1,500' hard-surface runway.
Miller's runway was extended somewhat in the next 2 years,
as the February 1966 Albany Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
depicted the field as having a single 2,000' paved runway.
The 1967 AOPA Airports USA Directory (according to Jonathan Westerling)
described Miller as being a public but unattended airport,
having a single 1,500’ north/south gravel runway.
Evidently the airfield was paved sometime thereafter.
When Roger came to work on March 22, 1982, he carried tragic news.
Miller & his good friend, Dave Hall who owned Gateway Motors in White River Junction,
had been killed when Miller became disoriented while trying to fly through a snowy whiteout
and crashed in North Stratford, NH.
The 1984 USGS topo map depicted Miller Airport as having a single north/south runway,
with two small buildings on the west side.
The 1984 NY Sectional Chart (courtesy of Jonathan Westerling)
depicted Miller as having a single 1,800' paved runway.
Miller Airport evidently was closed at some point between 1984-88,
as it was no longer listed at all in the 1988 Airports USA Directory (according to Jonathan Westerling).
The 1998 USGS aerial photo showed Miller Airport to still be completely intact,
with the hangars on the west side of the field still standing,
and the entire length of the runway still extant, though marked with closed-runway “X” symbols.
Trailers were stored on the southern portion of the runway.
A January 2006 panorama by Jonathan Westerling of the snowy scene at the former Miller Airport.
Note that the former hangar (on the left) was converted at some point to a 3-port garage.
The runway still runs the property as well.
The site of Miller Airport is located northeast of the intersection of Route 5 & Route 44A.
Thanks to Jonathan Westerling for pointing out this airfield.
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